Mark Dennis - View from the bank. 

After another punishing defeat at the hands of Fleetwood Town on Saturday, the Grecians now find themselves sat in 20th place in the League One table, just 1 place and 1 point outside of the relegation zone. Almost 2 months ago to the day, City were sitting on the top of the table, with optimism running high through the club and the fanbase. How has it all gone so wrong?!

There is no doubt, that injuries have played a massive part in the derailment of City’s campaign. Losing both Dion Rankine & Ilmari Niskinen to injury has robbed City of a starting right wing back, meaning either Vincent Harper or Demetri Mitchell have had to play on their unfavoured side, or Harry Kite played out of position. These injuries have affected the balance of team.

At various points, City have also lost Admiral Muskwe, James Scott, Ryan Trevitt, Reece Cole, Demetri Mitchell, Harry Kite & Tom Carroll all to injury.

James Scott, who started the season well, succumbed to injury and hasn’t seemed the same player since. Scott is in a wretched run of form at the moment, a result of what appears to be shattered confidence. Admiral Muskwe has not managed to hit the ground running since his move from Luton Town, and the Grecians strike force looks very light indeed.

Sonny Cox, City’s academy graduate who is currently on loan at Yeovil, is now earning positive reviews on social media with calls from fans to recall him from his loan spell. I think Sonny would benefit from a couple more months playing regular games in a team playing well and winning. Hopefully he can return to the squad in January, with a confidence to perform and hit the back of the net. Not to forget, Cox was also subjected to some jeers/cheers when substituted, similar to the treatment Scott has received in recent weeks. Sonny does not need that negativity affecting his game at this current moment.

While City were already struggling, they lost both Reece Cole & Demetri Mitchell to injury within 4 days of each other. These 2 players were City’s most creative influences in the side in terms of chance creation. To lose them both was a massive blow.

The injury to Mitchell had the feeling of being “season defining” at the time, due to his importance to the side and the attacking threat he was providing. With injury after injury to deal with, the Mitchell ACL diagnosis really was a hammer blow.

All that being said, some of City’s performances in recent weeks have been alarming and concerning to say the least. I am not privy to the Fleetwood performance due to family commitments, but some performances (Derby springs to mind) have been way short of the required standard. I stop short of suggesting that players don’t care or aren’t giving their all, as I genuinely don’t believe that is the case. Unfortunately, their confidence is currently at rock bottom in that is showing in the performance levels.

Today, the Club Board have come out with a statement acknowledging the recent poor form. The statement read, “as a club we are committed to playing football at the highest sustainable level, which must be at the heart of our decision making”. It was also said that the board see the success of the club as a shared responsibility and that they are in constant communication with the manager to ensure he has the correct support he requires as we move through this challenging period. It was further mentioned that investment in the playing squad for the January transfer window was now high on the agenda.

The statement would imply that they are still behind Caldwell to turn things around and that they are prepared to back him financially in January to try and help arrest our fortunes.

Positive as that might be, there are still 8 more League One matches to play before that transfer window is open, and City can ill afford to continue losing matches at the current rate. On paper, City have some winnable looking games during December, with Bolton & Portsmouth being the obvious exceptions. The worry is that City do not look like beating anyone at this moment in time, and that will need to be addressed if the manager is to keep his job. The club cannot simply continue to lose games on a consistent basis and fail to act.

Gauging opinion on social media, there are some fans that feel a cash injection to the playing squad will be enough to solve our current issues, others are clear that the manager should leave his post. The reality normally sits somewhere in the middle.

Spending on players does not guarantee success. There has been enough evidence of this with many other clubs in the past. While I agree City do indeed need to splash the cash, it also needs to be sustainable. If the club were to offer lucrative wages for a player as an example, and our fortunes still didn’t turn, and we ended up back in League Two, we need to ensure we are well placed to deal with those financial implications.

There is also the argument “can Gary be trusted to bring in the right players?”, citing the failure of his current signings. Only a few weeks ago, fans were almost unanimous in their praise of Caldwell and Marcus Flitcroft’s (Head Of Recruitment, don’t forget) signings. Have they all become bad players overnight? Or have they been ravaged by injury and their confidence shattered? However, whether the City boss will see through to January remains to be seen. Not forgetting, the fact that the window opens in January doesn’t mean that new signings will be made straightaway, it might take some time over the course of the month to get the required players through the door. Time that City can ill afford to lose.

I respect the club for coming out and stating their intentions. They are in a lose-lose situation. Fans have been calling for investment in January. The Board have come out and said they will look to do that, which has led to calls that the club have been naïve in alerting potential selling clubs to this fact. They really are “damned if they do, damned if they don’t”.

It doesn’t look like getting better for City immediately, with a very tough away fixture at Bolton next on the cards. What looks like an almost certain defeat will require a huge performance if we are to get anything out of the game.

One saving grace is the postponed Peterborough Utd game, and free weekend at the start of December (at time of writing). Peterborough are in good form, as is our former young star Joel Randall. With Posh having 3 international call ups, they decided to cancel the fixture, which they might, with hindsight, regret. Now would be the perfect time to play this City side.

The break gives some players the chance to return from injury. With Niskinen making a 2nd half appearance at Fleetwood, we will hopefully have him, Dion Rankine, Reece Cole & Tom Carroll back from injury. That will bring City back to an almost full compliment, with the one glaring absence in Mitchell, who will quite likely have played his last game for the club.

I have sympathy with Caldwell. The wretched run of injuries have severely impacted the team he has wanted to select, as well as the club decision to sell Sam Nombe before the transfer window without an out and out replacement lined up. That move has cost City dearly. Not just for goals (Nombe wasn’t prolific), but for the work rate and pressing that Nombe (along with Jay Stansfield) provided at the top end of the pitch. City currently have no one capable of filling that role and questions should be asked of the board and head of recruitment regarding that. It is decision that has left the manager, and team, short.

That being said, there comes a point when action has to be taken. I am hopeful that the manager can turn this around and will back him and the team to do so.

In unfortunate timing for Caldwell, ex-City boss Matt Taylor has lost his job at Rotherham, leading for several calls from fans for him to return. While I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to this, I am not sure the current squad suits Taylor’s style of play and I’m inclined to say “don’t go back”. Who’s to say that Taylor would even entertain the idea of coming back anyway. It’s all hearsay at this stage.

Hopefully the SJP crowd, as well as the hardy Grecians that follow City around the country can continue in their vehement support of the team in particular. Negativity from the stands does feed down onto the pitch. While I can fully understand any supporters frustrations, we have plenty of young lads in this team who will be experiencing this sort of feeling and run of results for the first time and need our support.

What happens next remains to be seen. Will the return of an almost fully fit squad arrest our fortunes? Will Caldwell make it to January? Will the board and head of recruitment identify the right players at attainable costs? There are many unknowns at the current time. But the one constant is us, the fans. I would urge everyone to try and stick together through this troubling period.

CTID!